Archive for ‘Jenny’

At this stage in the game, I try to resist the urge to keep introducing new characters. I already have so many with ongoing storylines and I’d like to wrap a few up some day. But when I put the silly N-POP Girl head on a Blacktron II body, I just had to do something with the character. I also realized that the only named Blacktron II characters were The Commodore and Lt. Verwaand, and I could use at least one more to match the three main Blacktron I characters. So I introduced Ensign Marrón, a potentially ruthless yet bubbly corporate go-getter. I think Marrón will fit easily into some stories I already have planned.

Valkyrie and Schwartz’s date in Scotland took an unexpected turn when it evolved into a smackdown between Nessie and a UFO, filmed by the DACTA news agency and viewed across the cosmos. It’s a long story. But you can read it starting here: http://spacethecomic.com/?p=465

I just can’t seem to get The Commodore’s outfit correct. He’s supposed to be a standard Blacktron II minifigure, but with a rocketpack. In his early appearances, I mistakenly used a figure with white instead of black arms. I intended to correct that in this storyline, then ended up using a figure that had all-white legs instead of the normal white-legs-with-black-crotch style of Blacktron II. The reason for these mistakes is twofold: Part of it is my occasional lack of attention toward detail as I set up scenes with multiple characters and ships, and try to get my photographs completed as quickly as possible. The other problem is Bricklick sellers who are sloppy with their products. (Bricklink, if you don’t know, is a great website for purchasing LEGO parts and sets from sellers around the world.) In both cases with The Commodore, I bought Blacktron II figures from sellers who claimed they were complete and accurate, and the figures ended up having the wrong parts. I’ve had many great experiences on Bricklink and I realize LEGO is a tough product to sell loose because it involves so many small parts, but this happens far too often (frequently with parts being missing). Some Bricklink sellers need to be more careful. As for an in-story reason for The Commodore’s different outfits, I just assume he likes to change up his style a bit and be special.

There are several characters not included in this comic. Most of them were either featured recently or will be featured soon. I just wanted to touch base with some familiar faces, many who have not been spotted since before the comic went on hiatus!

Oh man, 500 comics. In a way, I hope this comic doesn’t get to a thousand because I pray I can wrap up all the MANY dangling storylines by then. But the truth is I love making comics and always have. (I used to draw them, which I’m no longer as good at, but found I like utilizing photography even more.) When I take, say, a four-year break, I feel like I’m missing a creative outlet in my life. So maybe continuing indefinitely with SPACE: The Comic, even if it takes eons to tell, isn’t such a bad thing.

As I mentioned last week, the 500th comic is actually five comics. It was TOO BIG TO CONTAIN IN ONE COMIC! lol “Seeing Red” and the fates of Red and Captain Dash will continue immediately after “500″ concludes. You know, this storyline really could just have been called “Meteor Madness III.”

The, um, new version of Schwartz you see at the end is a custom action figure I assembled using parts from Dr. Mego’s Repros, Classic TV Toys, old G.I. Joe air tanks I found on eBay, and a sticker sheet from LEGO’s Mars Mission series.

Next up in the prose adventures of SPACE: The Comic is the first draft for (most of) an early chapter in a book I’d like to write about the characters. I’ll post it in pieces during the next few updates. Please note that the names of any LEGO-specific things (like the ship names) have been changed:

Commander Galanos jumped in his chair as the inside of his cockpit suddenly lit up with fluctuating red and blue lights. Before he could even turn around to see where it was coming from, a booming voice echoed over the spacewaves and into his helmet’s headphones: “Space Agency vessel, this is Galaxy P.D.! Pull over!”

“Oh, great,” Galanos moaned to himself. “What did I do?!” As the police lights confused his vision, his brain began juggling his memories like explosive torches, flitting past the last few moments to determine what he had done wrong. He had been well within the light speed limit for the Debulan planetary system and had made sure to exit stringspace within an acceptable distance. He always did! Galanos was practically in a leisurely cruise around Debulan II. Was his spaceship inspection up-to-date? Certainly, updated with months to spare. Could the cops be pulling him over because his ship, the Luna-Dart, was new and looked too fast? When he had chosen the coupe, the catalogue has assured him it was compact and sensible, yet fun and sporty. The pictures had presented the ship as landed in a sunset-hued field of red and violet Gliesian pinwheel flowers, while a family of four frolicked and enjoyed a picnic on their weekend cosmic outing in the constellation Libra. The Luna-Dart was shaped like a lozenge with flip-back wings, pearly white and smooth with a vibrant blue canopy. Sure, it had received upgrades to make it suitable for everyday Space Agency business, but that was all under the hood. It had to be the spoiler! Why had he opted for the spoiler?? Galanos knew he should have avoided temptation. This was his work vehicle, after all! The worst part about being pulled over was that he was on duty. Just because he was a member of Earth’s Space Agency didn’t mean the police would cut him any slack. The report on whatever he had done would go straight to his superiors, and be notated on his performance record permanently!

“Pull over, I said, pull over!” the officer’s voice crackled over Galanos’ helmet. Oh no, he thought, how long had he hesitated while lost in thought? Split seconds, not whole seconds, right?

From behind Galanos, the tinny voice of his service robot dryly commented, “I think you’re in trouble now, Commander.”

Galanos spun quickly toward the back seat where the smooth and nearly featureless blue robot sat watching the events unfold. “I know, S-Bot, I know!” Galanos insisted. “I’m on it!” The robot shook its head and shrugged.

Not wanting to add “Evading Arrest” to the list of charges that were growing in his head, Galanos slammed his right boot down onto the button on the floor that drained the power from his ship’s modest thrusters. As he did so, he saw the nose of the police vessel pull along his ship’s starboard side. It was hard to see the vessel well through the disconcerting lights emanating from above its cockpit canopy, but the shape was extremely familiar. The cockpit of the light gray ship beside Galanos was stylishly tapered forward from an electric blue canopy that ended in a coiled, pointed laser rod that glowed orange. It was unconventional starcraft design, and certainly not something you’d expect to see among the fairly conservative Galaxy P.D.

The other ship pulled forward a bit more and Galanos saw that the police lights were of the portable variety, a contraption slapped haphazardly and unfittingly onto the other vessel. Even more telling, the swooping nose of the ship was decorated with an emblem depicting a fiery Thunderbird snatching a sun in its beak – the same design tampographed onto each wing of Galanos’ ship and somewhere on the surface of every Space Agency ship. Galanos peered into the other cockpit and, even through the flashing lights, could see the pilot grinning devilishly at him.

“Zis is dee long arm of dee law,” the other pilot announced into Galanos’s helmetphone. “Pull over now or I make zee strip search even more humiliating!”

Galanos both sighed and exclaimed, “Dammit, Schwartz! You scared the crap out of me! What are you doing?! It’s a crime to impersonate a police officer!”

“Come on, man, who’s watching?” Schwartz argued. “The meteors you have to catalogue aren’t going anywhere. They’ve been in the same orbit for like a trillion years.”

Galanos sighed and looked back at S-Bot, who was of course eyeing him expressionlessly as always. “You know I don’t really care what you do,” the robot said. “As long as you leave me out of any brilliant ideas of his that include me.”

Galanos turned back to look at Schwartz’s ship, the UV-9, and got blinded again by the police lights. “Will you turn those off? Geez!” he protested.

“Oh, sorry,” Schwartz said, having forgotten about the lights. He flicked them off and Galanos’ eyes continued struggling to adjust. Schwartz still appeared as a blurry shadow across from him. “We could sit here and argue about this for an hour, or you could just follow me down right now because we both know that’s what you always do anyhow,” Schwartz stated.

Galanos shrugged, well aware he was a slave to old routines. “Fine, I’ll see you down below,” he caved.

“Ha, ha!” said Schwartz and immediately rocketed away.

“But no hard liquor! Just a beer! Maybe two!” Galanos warned as he flipped out the Luna-Dart’s wings and chased the UV-9 down to the rocky orb of Debulon II.

-Don’t worry, I didn’t spend like $150 on the giant Star Wars Clone Tank just to get Aayla Secura. She’s the $4 keychain with the chain ripped out. They come out with Force if you just yank hard. -Huey Lewis has been following Galanos around since this comic . -And finally, Red shows up! - This is not an official LEGO comic. This is a tribute. —– WWW.SPACETHECOMIC.COMFollow Space: The Comic on TWITTER and FACEBOOK . ALSO CHECK OUT:12 Men Died Making This Strip !

–Sorry for the short break in comics. Took awhile before I could shoot some new pictures. Hope the wait for this one was worth it! –Ronald and Mikey’s Mom was meant to be one of those off-screen characters that gets mentioned a lot but is never seen, like Norm’s wife Vera on Cheers. But this story worked much better with her in the picture and the ice skater minifig was perfect for her character, so I introduced her properly. –Since the comic began, I’ve been using the same minifig for Schwartz. Unfortunately, the gold emblem on his chest began to rub away (a common problem) through hours and hours of shooting. His uniform was becoming noticeably worn. So, I finally gave in and bought Schwartz a new torso! The rest of him is the same old Schwartz, though! You’ll probably still see the faded emblem show up in reused shots, though, continuity be damned! - This is not an official LEGO comic. This is a tribute.